The best, classic, easy New York cheesecake recipe, made with simple ingredients and topped with sour cream frosting. Rich and creamy with no water bath! Also known as NY cheesecake.
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Cheesecake is one of the most old-fashioned, delicious and indulgent desserts to serve at parties. Unfortunately, it has a reputation for being complicated to make but this ultimate family recipe is the best. It never fails and has been tested numerous times and yielded successful results every single time, just like my Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust or my Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars. It's rich, smooth, creamy. There is no sinking, no cracks, no thick brown crust on sides and tops and no water bath is required.
This baked cheesecake is very rich and has a graham cracker crust layer, topped off with a cheese layer that consists of eggs, sugar, heavy cream, lots of cream cheese and a little flour. I have heard it became popular at Lindy's and Junior's Deli.
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How to make best easy homemade New York cheesecake recipe from scratch ?
- Prepare the graham cracker crust and spread it in a springform pan.
- Prepare the cheesecake batter by mixing together eggs, cream cheese, flour, vanilla, sugar, heavy cream.
- Pour batter on top of the graham cracker crust.
- Bake and let it cool in oven.
- Chill.
- Decorate with swirls of frosting and you are done.
Why did my cheesecake crack or split or sink?
There could be a few different reasons for this and either one or all can apply to your situation.
- Since cheesecakes have so many eggs, they require moisture and humidity. Cracks happen when cheesecake is over-baked or baked at a high temperature, causing it to become dry and/or burn or become brown. This also affects the texture and makes it gritty.
- Another cause is a drastic change in temperature. That's why I highly recommend the cheesecake to cool in the oven when you turn it off and don't remove it immediately. Slow and even baking and cooling prevents the cheesecake from sinking back down as it cools.
- Over-mixing the batter can also be another culprit. This causes lots of air bubbles to be created in the batter, which expand and try to escape during baking by coming towards the top. This results in cracks and/or deep indentations.
Tips and techniques
- Use full fat ingredients- For maximum creaminess and richness, use full fat cream cheese, sour cream, butter. Nothing should be low fat or skim.
- Don't increase the baking temperature OR alter the baking time- The low baking temperature prevents the formation of a brown crust on the top and sides.
- Use other flavors of extracts- I used vanilla extract but get creative and use any extract of your choice.
- Cooling in the oven is crucial- Because if you skip this step, it cools too quickly and the cheesecake will shrink and crack on top.
- Chill in fridge- Because this firms up the cheesecake and makes it easier to cut smooth slices.
- All ingredients should be at room temperature- Because this allows them to blend together smoothly and evenly.
- Always use a springform pan- Because it is easy to remove the baked cake from the pan without it falling apart or breaking.
- Make mini cheesecakes- Use cupcake liners and spread the cookie crust layer first and then pour the cheese batter on top. Bake, chill and frost with icing.
Cheesecake toppings
I paired mine with a classic sour cream frosting. You can either spread it with a spatula on top of the cake or make swirls, like I did. Some other popular choices are fruit preserves and fruit toppings. Pie fillings work very well too such as Raspberry Pie Filling, Peach Pie Filling, Apple Pie Filling, Strawberry Pie Filling, Blueberry Pie Filling, or Cherry Pie Filling.
More cheesecakes
- Eggnog Cheesecake (No Bake)
- Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes (No Bake)
- No Bake Peach Cheesecake
- No Bake Coffee Cheesecake (Mocha)
- Snowball Cake (Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Cake)
Recipe FAQs
Typically, you would gently shake the cheesecake and if it jiggles slightly in only a small spot in the center but is not soupy, it's considered to be done. However, I don't recommend doing this for my recipe because it can cause the cheesecake to crack or collapse.
A traditional cheesecake is simple and the batter is typically made with 3 ingredients: cream cheese, sugar and eggs. However, the famous NY version is taller, heavier, richer and creamier because of the addition of more cream cheese, additional egg yolks and even heavy cream. It's dense and has a smooth velvet-like texture. Sometimes it’s even flavored with lemon.
Recipe
Easy New York Cheesecake Recipe
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Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1.5 cups Graham cracker crumbs
- ½ cup Granulated sugar
- ¼ cups Butter Unsalted, Melted
Cheesecake layer
- 5 packages Cream cheese Full fat, 8 oz. each
- 5 Eggs Large
- 2 Egg yolks From large eggs
- 1.5 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups Granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon All-purpose flour
- ¼ cup Heavy cream
Sour Cream Frosting
- ⅓ cup Butter Unsalted, Room temperature
- ½ cup Sour cream
- 1.5 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 3 cups Powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter until you have a crumbly mixture.
- Spread this mixture in A 9 inch springform pan/ cheesecake pan and pack it down Keep aside.
- In another mixing bowl, add cream cheese and whip until smooth.
- Add eggs, egg yolks, vanilla extract and mix until combined.
- Add sugar, flour and mix until well-blended.
- Add heavy cream and mix until mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Pour mixture in the prepared springform pan.
- Place the pan in a NON-HEATED oven and then, turn it on and set to 200 degrees F.
- Bake the cheesecake for 3 hours.
- At the 3 hour mark, turn off the oven but DO NOT remove the cheesecake from the oven and DO NOT open the oven door for at least 1 hour.
- At the 1 hour mark, remove cheesecake from oven. Cover and chill in fridge overnight or at least 6 hours.
- While the cheesecake is chilling, prepare the sour cream frosting by mixing together butter, sour cream and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually, add powdered sugar and mix until creamy and fluffy.
- Prior to serving the cheesecake, decorate it with swirls of sour cream frosting. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Read all my tips above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.
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